1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of and an apparatus for automatically packaging products having at least different product lengths or different side dimensions with packaging members.
2. Description of the Related Art
It has generally been customary in the art to manufacture various products having different dimensions such as lengths, side dimension, etc., and thereafter package the products with packaging members such as corrugated cardboard boxes or the like, producing packaged products.
One of the various known types of such products is in the form of a light-shielded photosensitive roll for use in the field of platemaking. The light-shielded photosensitive roll comprising an elongate photosensitive sheet wound around a core, a pair of flanged members as light-shielding members mounted respectively on the opposite ends of the rolled photosensitive sheet, and a light-shielding sheet (leader) wound around the rolled photosensitive sheet.
Various light-shielded photosensitive rolls have heretofore been proposed in the art. The applicant of the present application has filed a patent application on a process for easily manufacturing such a light-shielded photosensitive roll (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-310834).
According to the process disclosed in the above patent application, as shown in FIG. 29 of the accompanying drawings, two disk-shaped light-shielding members (flanged members) 2 are attached respectively to opposite ends of a photosensitive material roll 1, and an elongate heat-shrinkable light-shielding leader 3 which is longitudinally shrinkable with heat is wound around the photosensitive material roll 1, the light-shielding leader 3 having and end fixed to the photosensitive roll 1 by tapes 4. Then, the photosensitive roll 1 is placed in a shrink tunnel (not shown) and heated to shrink the light-shielding leader 3. The light-shielding leader 3 is shrunk with heat to have its opposite edges 3a brought into close contact with the outer edges of the disk-shaped light-shielding members 2, thus manufacturing a light-shielded photosensitive roll (product) 5.
The light-shielded photosensitive roll 5 thus manufactured in the above production process is then introduced into a packaging process. In the packaging process, the light-shielded photosensitive roll 5 with damping members 6 held respectively against the opposite ends thereof is placed into a corrugated cardboard box 7, thus producing a packaged product 8.
In the packaging process, a facility is usually employed to package light-shielded photosensitive rolls 5 of one type in one size. However, the light-shielded photosensitive roll 5 is produced in different diameters. Specifically, there are available cores of different diameters, e.g., 2 inches and 3 inches, for supporting the photosensitive material roll 1 thereon, and the photosensitive material roll 1 is wound to different outside diameters on each of those cores. For example, the photosensitive material roll 1 is wound to four different outside diameters on cores having a diameter of 2 inches, and wound to two different outside diameters on cores having a diameter of 3 inches, so that a total of six different types of the light-shielded photosensitive roll 5 may be manufactured. In addition, the light-shielded photosensitive roll 5 is produced in different roll widths, and hard flanged members may be inserted as the disk-shaped light-shielding members 2. Therefore, the light-shielded photosensitive roll 5 is available in different package forms.
There has been a demand for the automatic packaging of light-shielded photosensitive rolls 5 having various different sizes. To meet the demand, there is known a system (hereinafter referred to as “first system”) for shifting product information in a register in a computer (PC) in synchronism with the position of light-shielded photosensitive rolls 5 in the packaging process, and selecting corrugated cardboard boxes 7 and making facility changeovers based on the product information read from the register in working stations.
There is also known another system (hereinafter referred to as “second system”) for selecting corrugated cardboard boxes 7 and making facility changeovers in working stations based on bar-code information read from bar codes that have been applied to light-shielded photosensitive rolls 5.
With the first system, however, the product information tends to be shifted out of synchronism with the actual position of light-shielded photosensitive rolls 5 in the packaging process. Consequently, it is likely for corrugated cardboard boxes 7 to be selected in error and also for facility changeovers to be made in error, resulting in a failure to perform the packaging process efficiently.
With the second system, different bar codes are liable to be applied to light-shielded photosensitive rolls 5 in the packaging process, with the result that corrugated cardboard boxes 7 may possibly be selected in error and facility changeovers may possibly be made in error.
Some of the light-shielded photosensitive rolls 5 which have been manufactured are not delivered directly to the packaging process, and are present as intermediate stock items. Such intermediate stock items cannot be well handled by the first system, and bar codes may often be applied in error to intermediate stock items in the second system. For these reasons, it is the usual practice for workers to manually inspect intermediate stock items for their appearance, but the manual inspection fails to increase the efficiency of the overall process.
The process of manufacturing the packaged product 8 includes many steps performed manually by the worker. Therefore, the manufacturing process is relatively complex and cannot easily be made more efficient.
For example, damping members 6 are manually supplied by the worker from damping member magazines that are positioned one on each side of the light-shielded photosensitive roll 5, and inserted into position on the opposite ends of the light-shielded photosensitive roll 5. The manual handling of damping members 6 is poor in efficiency. In addition, if many types of light-shielded photosensitive rolls 5 are employed, then since the worker needs to choose correct damping members 6 for each of the light-shielded photosensitive rolls 5, the efficiency with which to apply damping members 6 becomes considerably low.
Corrugated cardboard boxes 7 are not available for respective different types of light-shielded photosensitive rolls 5, but light-shielded photosensitive rolls 5 are housed in available corrugated cardboard boxes 7 with spacers interposed therebetween. The spacers are available in three types, i.e., spacers that are 30 mm thick, spacers that are 20 mm thick, and spacers that are 10 mm thick. The worker pick out and insert spacers that match the gaps between the corrugated cardboard box 7 and the light-shielded photosensitive roll 5 to be placed therein. Accordingly, it is a considerably complex and time-consuming task to insert spacers snugly between the corrugated cardboard box 7 and the light-shielded photosensitive roll 5.